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Monday, November 26, 2012

Baseball Notes for November 26, 2012

More moves and rumors are starting to come in now
that the baseball offseason is in full-swing. It’s always interesting to see
the jostling that takes place, as teams seek to set their 2013 rosters, while battling
other teams for resources. Despite Thanksgiving dominating this past week,
there was still a flurry of activity that provided a lot of fuel to the hot
stove fires.

***A week after pulling off a stunning trade with
the Florida Marlins, the Toronto Blue Jays finally named their manager for next
season. The fact that it was John
Gibbons surprised many. Gibbons managed
Toronto for parts of five seasons from 2004 to 2008, before getting fired after
finishing with a 305-305 overall record.

Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos, who joined the Blue
Jays after Gibbons initial termination, cited wanting to hire someone with
organizational familiarity as the reason why he chose to recycle his manager.
With a number of intriguing managerial candidates currently seeking jobs,
including Brad Ausmus, who received rave
reviews when interviewing for Boston’s vacancy,
it’s perplexing that Toronto wasn’t willing to think more outside the box with
such an overhauled team. Re-hiring Gibbons to manage the Jays new squadron of
talent is the equivalent of buying an expensive painting and putting it in a
frame that had previously held a family photo.

*** The Red Sox made their second free-agent signing
of note, inking
outfielder Jonny Gomes to a two-year, $10
million deal. Calling Gomes and his career -10.1 dWAR an outfielder is
generous, but he can at least mash left-handed pitching, putting up a
.284/.382/.512 split for his career. The problem is that he is nearly
unplayable against righties, as his split spiral to .223/.307/.425 against them.
He has been especially helpless against righties during the past two seasons,
batting just a combined .181.

It’s clear that the Sox believe Gomes can help them
against the star southpaws like C.C. Sabathia and David Price within their division.
However, one has to wonder if his one specialized talent is worth the contract
he received. The Red Sox faced just 51 lefty starters last season, and only
29.8 of the team’s total plate appearances came against left-handers. For a
player who clearly can’t be a full-time starter or even a regular, the money
given to Gomes seems excessive.

***One of the superlatives being hurled around the
most in regards to Gomes is his identity as a “great
clubhouse guy.” I wish people would quantify
exactly what that means. Surely baseball players enjoy teammates who tell great
jokes, spring for the occasional dinner and give good hugs, but is that really
worth $5 million a season? Personally, I feel “good clubhouse guy” is a label
that ranks right up there with “scrappy” and “knows how to win” as clichés that
have little actual value.

*** Although Dustin Pedroia is signed to a
team-friendly contract that still has two years and $20 million, plus a 2015
club option for $11 million, the Red Sox are reportedly interested in exploring
an extension with their second baseman. If this
is true, chalk it up to yet another questionable move by GM Ben Cherington. The
Sox have zero incentive to extend Pedroia now, other than making him incredibly
happy and rich.

The Philadelphia Phillies probably wish they could
re-do the five-year,
$125 million extension they gave Ryan Howard
three years before his contract was up. The Red Sox could very well be in the
same boat if they decide to capitulate with Pedroia.

Assuming Pedroia’s 2015 option is picked up, he will
enter the 2016 season as a 33-year-old infielder with 10 major league seasons
under his belt. Feeling confident enough to give him a long-term extension
three years before that time is utter madness. It is a much sounder financial
move for the Red Sox to have Pedroia play out his current deal and start
negotiating closer to the time when he will be a free agent, so they can
evaluate if he will still have enough value to be worthy of a substantial
extension.

***If you’re looking for tangible proof that
mediocrity pays, look no further than the three-year,
$25 million contract Jeremy Guthrie just received
from the Kansas City Royals. Guthrie has pitched exclusively for second
division teams during his career, but that only partly accounts for his 55-77
career record and 4.28 ERA. He’s not a
huge strikeout pitcher and allows a lot of home runs, which is a curious
combination for the Royals, who are desperately trying to establish a
legitimate starting rotation.

The Royals will have to hope that Guthrie can
duplicate the results he had with them over the second half of last season
after coming over in a trade from the Rockies. He posted a 3.16 ERA in those 14
starts, along with the lowest home run rate of his career. Since he is never
going to be an ace, The Royals are paying lot of money for a mid-rotation
starter, but it’s reflective of the premium being placed on pitching around
baseball.

***In the wake of being part of the epic
salary dump trade from the Marlins to the Blue Jays,
pitcher Mark Buehrle claimed he was lied
to on multiple occasions by Miami. Presumably
he is referring to an unofficial no-trade agreement he believed he had with the
team. However, as Dan Szymborski pointed out on Twitter, if there was any sort of side-agreement, it would have been a violation
of the CBA.

If Buehrle did have an illegal side deal in place,
then shame on him, and he needs to stop his grousing. When you sign a $58
million contract like Buehrle did last off-season,
you get everything you want on paper, or deal with the consequences. He had no
official no-trade clause and shouldn’t be surprised that he has been moved.
After all, quoting another of my favorite clichés, it’s just part of baseball.